Jordanian sentenced to 10 years over ISIS plot

Court in Amman jails Jordanian man for 10 years for plotting attacks on behalf of ISIS.

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Ben Ariel, 30/11/17 05:58

Jihadists (illustration)

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A court in Amman on Wednesday jailed a Jordanian man for 10 years for plotting attacks on behalf of the Islamic State (ISIS) against an air base used by the coalition fighting the jihadists, AFP reported.

The state security court found the 52-year-old guilty of "conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts", according to the news agency.

The man - whose name was not released by officials - was arrested in November of 2016 as he plotted to attack the Muwaffaq Salti air base in the country's eastern desert, the staging point for aerial sorties by the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the court said.

It said the man had been in contact with ISIS operatives in Raqqa, the group's former Syria stronghold, who asked him to "carry out military operations targeting officers and members of the Jordanian military intelligence services."

He had also been told to monitor the base and had passed intelligence to ISIS on its layout and how it was guarded.

Jordan has been targeted by several terrorist attacks in recent years, particularly since it became a leading member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

At least one hundred detainees have been sentenced to death in Jordan in recent years, many on charges related to membership in Islamist groups, who could face capital punishment.

In March, Jordan executed 15 people, including one man who was convicted of an attack on an intelligence compound near a Palestinian “refugee camp” in which five security personnel were killed. Another five were involved in an assault by security forces on a hideout by suspected ISIS jihadists in Irbid in the same year.

In 2015, ISIS shot down a Jordanian warplane conducting airstrikes on Syria as part of the international coalition.